Izuocha week 2018 Day 1: Stars

I’ve long since come to the conclusion that I’ll only be able to offer meager drabbles for this blessed event, so that’s all you’re getting from me.

On the other hand, this time I actually have enough for the whole week!!!….or at least 5 days, let’s not get our hopes up.

Since Ochako could remember, she has always loved stargazing.

Her mother would bring her up to the flat roof of their humble home when she was younger, sit her down on her lap, and spent hours pointing out constellations and tracing patterns of her own in the night sky with a lit match.

When things had gotten tougher for her family, when they had to pinch pennies and cut corners to make it to the end of each month with their heads above water, Ochako would still allow herself that one small indulgence. Those precious few moments before she went to sleep where she could gaze up into the sky and let herself be lost in the hundred million lights above her head.

One of the reasons 13 was one of her favorite heroes was because they were space themed, as petty as that was. The infinite black simply fascinated her, always has. There was a brief period where she wanted to be an astronaut, just so she could see those lights just that bit closer.

In light of this, Ochako supposes that it isn’t that much of a surprise that she often finds herself staring at Deku’s freckled face. At first, it was simple fascination, a mild interest at the dusting of tiny spots on his pale face, more noticeable out in the sunlight.

But it grew, as the two of them grew closer she found herself counting his freckles in her head, tracing constellation with lazy swings of her finger in the air as a teacher rambled on the background about something she had memorized before.

He noticed eventually, of course, and she was beyond mortified at being caught, infinitely more so when she tried to explain herself by saying that she was only doing it because, “they remind me of stars!”

They spent a good minute or so burning bright red at each other, unable to say a word.

After recovering, Izuku surprised her by asking if she really stargazing that much, which led to her explaining her love of the night sky, which led to him requesting that she show him.

Which led, somehow, to the two of them being where they were, on the roof of the dorm building, a good long while after lights out, laying on their backs as Ochako pointed out constellations.

“See there? That line of stars there?”

“That one?”

“Yeah! That’s Ursa Major, big dipper.”

“Whoa…”

Ochako very pointedly ignored how his eyes shone as she moved from one star to another, the light there matching the ones above.

“Those three? That’s Orion’s belt, and you find the rest of him around like,” she moved her finger for a moment, struggling to remember how her mother showed her, smiling as the memory came to her, “like this…do you see?”

He followed her movements with his own hand, though much less confidently, finger sluggish and imprecise, “like this?”

She laughed. “No, here,” she grabbed his hand without thinking, helping him map out the stars as she had, “see? One…two…three!” She turned to him with a bright grin, taken a bit aback when she saw the red flush to his cheeks and noticed, as if just now, how she had grabbed his hand, “…like that!”

“Y-yeah! I see it now.”

They both looked at their connected hands, fingers interlocked still around each other. Then turned back to each other’s eyes, identical flushes of red on their cheeks.

Ochako felt her heart rumbling loudly in her chest, but despite that a smile persisted on her face, which eventually led to Izuku mirroring it with one of his own. They shared a quick chuckle before Ochako turned back to gaze up at the sky, pointing with her free hand to one particular star, “you know about this one right?”

Izuku followed her gaze and grinned. “The north star.” He moved his fingers against hers before he lightly tightened his grip, “a fixed point in the sky, so long as you can see the north star…you’ll always find you way.”

Ochako didn’t miss the half glance he threw her way when he said that, heart growing louder in her ears. She turned her head to look at him with a cautious smile, a smile that grew across her cheeks as he met her gaze fully. “Always.”

Unthinking, she reached out a hand to touch the star dust on his cheeks, tracing constellations with her fingers, pulling herself closer to see them more clearly.

Under a moonlit sky, filled to the brim with stars, they shared a kiss.